Tuesday, September 18, 2012

What Went Wrong: One day after allowing 12 runs to the San Diego Padres at Petco Park and only losing by one run, the Rockies hold the mighty San Francisco Giants to two runs... and again lose by one run.

Bet nobody saw that coming.

And by nobody I mean everybody.

Turning Points: What makes a loss like this one all the more frustrating though is Madison Bumgarner walking five batters in six innings and the Rockies not making him pay for it.

Dexter Fowlers starts the game with a walk... and then he's caught stealing.

Chris Nelson leads off the 2nd with a walk. Andrew Brown follows with a single. But that rally dies on a D.J. LeMahieu double play.

Fowler and Josh Rutledge walk with one out in the 4th. Jordan Pacheco and Wilin Rosario fail to drive them in.

Andrew Brown walks in the 6th... caught stealing (picked off).

Turning any single one of those walks into a run would have changed the entire outlook. Instead, Bumgarner gets off the hook repeatedly and the Rockies get absolutely nothing going against San Francisco's tough bullpen. Same result we've seen seemingly 1,000 times over the past few seasons against those guys.

Solid outing that very likely would have stretched out to an excellent outing with a couple more innings of work. But I'm just happy to see Jhoulys throwing this well and looking healthy because that's all that truly matters right now.Bullpen's Line: 3 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 1 BB, 3 K

Guillermo Moscoso takes the loss after allowing a run in the 6th, which actually could have been a lot worse for him since he faced a first and third with no outs. Edgmer Escalona and Josh Outman then finished the game out, so basically we saw the three worst pitching options on the September roster and they didn't turn this into a laugher. Back pats and backhanded compliments for them!

Highlight of the Night: The bright spot, again, was Josh Rutledge. After breaking out of a long slump on Sunday with a game-tying grand slam, the Rockies rookie continued showing signs of improvement and maturity by lacing a game-tying RBI triple to the opposite field. Just a gorgeous piece of hitting.

What's Next: Didn't we just see Jeff Francis (5-5, 5.68) vs Tim Lincecum (9-14, 5.09) a couple days ago? Is this entire series going to be a repeat? I hope not, but tune in at 8:15 on Tuesday just to make sure.